Tonight was the announcement of the 2026 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. The Mariners, being one of the worst teams in the league, unsurprisingly only had one nomination: Cole Young at second base. That nomination really mattered, though, as Cole Young won, giving the Mariners their 45th Gold Glove award as a team, the first since 2024 (when they had two winners in Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh), and the first at second base for the Mariners since 2004, the final year of Brett Boone’s historic three-peat at the position (when Cole Young was one year old). Perhaps speaking to how haunted the second base position has been for the Mariners over the years, Young is only the third Mariner to win a Gold Glove at the position. He is also the second Mariners player to win a Gold Glove Award during his age-22 or under season, joining Ken Griffey Jr. – good company.
Young beat White Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth and Royals second baseman Michael Massey to win the award. Both Meidroth and Massey had the edge via Outs Above Average (OAA), MLB’s internal stat, and Meidroth led all AL second basemen with +10 Defensive Run Value (DRV). MLB’s official nominations report ranked Young third behind those two, lukewarmly noting that “different metrics had significantly different opinions on Young’s defense in 2026.”
Where Young shined was in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), a stat tracked by Sports Info Solutions; Young led all AL second basemen with 16 DRS – the most for a Mariners second baseman in a season since SIS began tracking the statistics in 2003. Young’s fielding percentage of .990 is the third-best single-season mark by a second baseman in Mariners history, behind Robinson Canó (.996 in 2016 and .991 in 2015).
Of course, everyone reading this has seen Young’s play for themselves, which speaks louder than any defensive metric, which only accounts for 25% of the total votes – the rest of the votes come from managers and coaches in each league. We’ve written about Young’s improving defense at second base since spring training, when it became immediately apparent that Young had improved on both sides of the ball. Young significantly improved his footwork and positioning, eventually settling into second base after working at shortstop for most of his playing career. Although the arm action is unconventional, I encourage anyone evaluating Cole Young to look at his footwork first; distance measurements don’t like him (hence the poor OAA rating), but he’s incredibly quick and light on his feet, almost like a dancer, something he practices every day with exaggerated jumps during his field work. Those quick feet help him make the “plays in the box,” as grounds coach Perry Hill preaches, with an incredibly high degree of reliability.
Young also worked hard on his conditioning, keeping him on the field – no Mariner played more games than Young, who appeared in 160 games, more than all but nine other MLB players. That’s especially impressive considering the increased workload after Young played in just 77 games in 2025, ceding his second base job to Jorge Polanco during the playoffs. It was a running joke in the game threads whenever a ball was hit to Cole Young that I would type “you idiot, you hit it to our (1) competent defender on the field” – which understates how good Young was there, but also speaks to the fragility of the interior defense on the field all season, between injuries, rookies, and general ineffectiveness; it’s really scary to think what the interior defense would have looked like without Young.
Another running joke that’s no longer a joke: At the beginning of a post-spring training podcast, I was talking about Young’s improving defense and casually said that I thought people would be pleasantly surprised to see how much better looking he looked, but “it’s not like he’s going to win a Gold Glove or anything” – at which point one of my colleagues challenged me, and I said, stupidly, that if Cole Young won a Gold Glove, I would get a tattoo to commemorate it. (Kate’s current tattoo count is zero, just FYI.) This throwaway joke became a very real threat as the season progressed and Young continued to perform. It got to the point where I told Cole, who very kindly offered to let me out of the deal – obviously I declined, I’m a woman of my word – but sincerely said he really, really wanted to win the prize, so “one of us is going to be unhappy.” I am very happy, it is me who is unhappy.
I’m also glad that Perry Hill, who coached Young, is adding to his reputation as a “Gold Glove Maker,” especially after being a victim of coaching staff turnover. Perry, if you’re reading this, the offer to write your book (part biography, part instruction manual) still stands.
With Young winning the Gold Glove, you can now vote for him for the Platinum Glove Award here. The full list of winners is here.
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